Spread the Word about Coverage Options

As we head toward the March 31open enrollment closing date, it’s important that Get Covered Illinois continue its push to the finish line. Every day, the number of Illinoisans obtaining health coverage is growing.

Who We Are The Hip Hop Caucus is a civil and human rights organization for the 21st Century. Our movement began in 2004. Our vision is to create a more just and sustainable world by engaging more people, particularly young people and people of color in the civic and policy making process.

What We DoWe organize young people to be active in elections, policymaking, and service projects. We are an effective vehicle for working toward social change because we link people's cultural expression with their social and political experience. READ MORE!

Our Mission

The mission of the Hip Hop Caucus is to organize young people to be active in elections, policymaking and service projects. We mobilize, educate, and engage young people, ages 14 to 40, on the social, issues that directly impact their lives and communities.

Our CommunityOur community is young, diverse, and large in numbers.There are 657,000 Hip Hop Caucus supporters across all 50 states and D.C. Among our supporters, 70% are under the age of 40 years-old; 60% are women; a majority are African American and Latino, with a large White contingent, as well as Asian American and Native American.

EmpowermentThe Hip Hop Caucus works to improve the conditions of our communities by empowering young leaders and linking them to policymakers. From getting out the vote to working with the White House, Congress, State Houses, Mayors and City Councils, we push to create a better future for our country.

CultureArts, entertainment, sports, and cultural expression define our generation more than any previous generations. The Hip Hop Caucus harnesses the platforms of our celebrity, media, and entertainment partners to inform and move the urban community to action.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Two days after Illinois Republicans chose a multimillionaire as their candidate for governor, the powerful Chicago Democrat who controls the Illinois House proposed a tax on millionaires Thursday to fund the state's financially strapped education system.

House Speaker Michael Madigan introduced a constitutional amendment to tack a 3 percent surcharge onto incomes over $1 million, which he said would raise $1 billion a year for elementary and secondary education.

Madigan announced the idea in a state Capitol news conference just as one of the nation's most competitive governor races is heating up between Republican Bruce Rauner, a wealthy private-equity investor, and Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who espouse starkly contrasting visions of how to fix the lagging economy of the Democratic stronghold.

The proposal by the speaker, who doubles as state Democratic Party chairman and has controlled the House for nearly all of the last 30 years, intensifies an ongoing debate over...

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Governor Quinn Proclaims National Service Week March 23 – 29 Encourages Residents to Volunteer in their Communities and Take Part in April 1, 2014 Day of Recognition

CHICAGO – Governor Pat Quinn today proclaimed March 23 – 29 National Service Week in Illinois and encouraged people across Illinois to find ways to give back to their communities. Governor Quinn also reminded residents to take part in recognizing national service programs in their communities during the Mayors Day of Recognition of National Service on Tuesday, April 1. Today’s announcement is part of Governor Quinn’s commitment to encourage volunteerism in Illinois.“There is no better way to give back than to donate your time by volunteering,” Governor Quinn said. “Volunteers contribute a great deal to Illinois both locally and throughout the state at our historic sites, state parks, care facilities and institutions. I encourage everyone to participate in National Service Week and recognize the valuable gifts that volunteers provide.”“As John Maxwell once stated, ‘The bottom line in leadership isn’t how far we advance ourselves, but how far we advance others,’” Serve Illinois Commission Chair Frederick Nettles said. “In the line of service, our job is to empower others.”People across Illinois can find volunteer opportunities in their communities by visiting Serve.Illinois.gov. The website is run by the Serve Illinois Commission—a 40-member, bi-partisan board appointed by the Governor to improve Illinois communities by enhancing traditional volunteer activities and supporting national service programs.The Mayors Day of Recognition is a special initiative from the Corporation for National and Community Service to highlight the value and impact of volunteering and to encourage residents to participate. The second annual Mayors Day of Recognition will take place on April 1, 2014. Mayors across Illinois have registered to participate and those interested in signing up can visit NationalService.gov.AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and the Social Innovation Fund are the national service programs that will be recognized in numerous Illinois communities during Mayors Day of Recognition of National Service on April 1. Mayors and city and county managers will hold public events and use traditional and social media to highlight the value and impact of national service in their communities. Mayors who would like to participate should register through Serve.Illinois.gov.The Governor today also saluted the many service organizations that contribute daily to making Illinois a better place to live and work.AmeriCorps includes AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps State, AmeriCorps National and AmeriCorps NCCC. Together they provide opportunities for 80,000 citizens across the nation, including approximately 3,600 in Illinois, to give back to their communities, states and nation. AmeriCorps in Illinois last year recruited 53,600 volunteers and raised more than $4.7 million in in-kind resources.Senior Corps includes the Foster Grandparents Program, Senior Companions Program and Retired & Senior Volunteer Program. Each year the program places more than 14,000 volunteers in communities throughout Illinois. These volunteers have helped more than 7,000 Illinois children to read, assisted more than 18,000 seniors to stay in their homes, supported more than 5,800 veterans and 8,300 veteran family members, served more than 200 special needs children and supported more than 2,000 community organizations. Approximately 3.1 million Senior Corps hours contributed annually is valued at $70 million.The Social Innovation Fund mobilizes public and private sector resources to grow promising, innovative, community-based solutions in the areas of economic opportunity, healthy futures and youth development. The program has awarded $177.6 million in grants since 2010 that have yielded another $423 million in private commitments. Eleven Illinois organizations have received $1.3 million in grants.

***The creators of the best recipes will be invited to D.C. this summer, where they will have the opportunity to attend a Kids' "State Dinner," hosted by Mrs. Obama at the White House, where a selection of the winning healthy recipes will be served.

Just last week, the First Lady announced that cooking will be a new focus for Let's Move!, so start honing those skills and enter the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge.The deadline to submit recipes is April 5 -- only two weeks away -- so if you're looking for something to do with your kids this weekend, get cooking!Learn more about the challenge here, or visit recipechallenge.epicurious.com.

Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, will speak on the current trade debate. He will lay out the principles that should underlie trade policies that would reduce inequality and support rising wages in the U.S. and worldwide, and will discuss why recent proposals for fast tracking the TransPacific Partnership (TTP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will likely contribute to worsening inequality and job loss.

March 25, 2014, 9:30am ET - 10:30am ET

Space is extremely limited. RSVP required.Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and not guaranteed.

Last July, I entered my fourth half marathon. I didn't have health insurance.

After the race, I began to have significant pain in my right knee. But I avoided going to the doctor -- I knew I couldn't afford the bill from the consultation, much less the X-ray and MRI that would likely follow. So I waited -- months went by before I had coverage, and could finally get it checked out.

Now that I'm covered (and healed), I realize how lucky I am that it wasn't worse: An emergency could have landed me in debt for years.

Congratulations to our primary winners and our 2014 candidates. The turnout was unusually small but not unexpected. The robocalls encouraging Democrats to crossover also did not help our Democratic turnout.

Nonetheless, we are ready for the challenges that lie ahead these next seven months. We hope to fill some vacancies after the county convention by nominating candidates for those open seats. If you're interested in running for office, or know someone who is, call us as soon as possible (630-629-1125) and let us know which vacancy can be filled. We will prepare the necessary paperwork. We need to know, please, by April 10th.

Our 2014 DPDC budget has directed more than $20,000 to be used for campaigns, the majority of which will go directly to the candidates. This is more than we have ever budgeted for candidates. This is in addition to other resources that will be available (please watch for future emails from our Executive Director that will tell you how you can be involved and the tools we have to make your precinct bluer or your campaign more effective).

A Campaign Strategy committee has been formed and will review the local races and make recommendations on levels of support. They will look for those races that will give us the best possibility of winning. Candidates are also raising money for their campaigns, so help out your favorite(s) by donating to their campaign and by offering to walk a precinct or two with them.

It's time for us to return to Howard Dean's 50 state strategy. Each small sector of the county that is touched by the Democratic message and information about the candidates that carry that message will bring us closer to creating a Democratic voice that is loud and clear in DuPage. Please, get on board so that we can make the most out of 2014 and parlay those wins and that experience into a DYNAMIC 2016.

Let's bring home some winners.

Bob

Paid for by the Democratic Party of DuPage County.A copy of our report(s) filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections and DuPage County Clerk is available (or will be) for purchase from the DuPage County Clerk's office, 421 N. County Farm Road, Wheaton, IL 60187.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

With all due respect to the Governors of California and New York, Pat Quinn is the greatest champion of women and children of any sitting Governor. And Illinois voters should take note when voting in 2014.

The ongoing assaults in other states on women in health care, in the workplace and in government are escalating with each passing day. These attacks include: attempts to de-fund and shut down Planned Parenthood; forced ultrasounds before a woman can obtain an abortion; requiring insurance companies to refuse coverage for birth control and abortion; outright refusal to give rape victims information about emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms following an assault; the lack of equal pay laws coupled with no family medical leave; and legislation to make abortion illegal, unsafe and unavailable to millions of women. These are just some of the horrible circumstances now a reality in other states where anti-woman Governors rule. Think of the nightmares that are Rick Perry's Texas or Scott Walker's Wisconsin and you'll get the picture.

Not in our Illinois. Not with our Governor Pat Quinn. In Governor Quinn's Illinois, women and children are treated with respect and dignity -- not attacked, denigrated and humiliated.

Governor Quinn's leadership across a board spectrum of initiatives and laws to READ MORE

Sunday, March 16, 2014

GreenMan Theatre's 2014 Showcase production is "The
Laramie Project." Seven performances will take place April 4-13, 2014.
Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30 PM. Sunday shows begin at 2
PM. There is a Thursday 7:30 performance on April 10.

"The Laramie Project" is one of the most widely performed plays today,
whether on high school, college, community or professional theatre
stages. Time Magazine named the play one of the ten best plays of 2000,
and The San Francisco Chronicle said of the play: “It portrays an
American town with grace, truth, theatrical economy, compassion, wit,
despair and love.”

"The Laramie Project" will be performed at GreenMan's theatre space in
the First United Methodist Church at 232 S. York, Elmhurst. Reservations
can be made at www.greenmantheatre.com
or by calling 630-464-2646. Corporate funding for this production by
BMO Harris Bank. GreenMan programs are partially funded by a grant by
the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

ROYAL OAK, Mich. — Frank Houston
knows something about the longtime estrangement of white men from the
Democratic Party. His family roots are in nearby Macomb County, the
symbolic home of working-class Reagan Democrats who, distressed by
economic and social tumult, decided a liberal Democratic Party had left
them, not the other way around.

Mr. Houston grew up in the 1980s liking Ronald Reagan but idolizing Alex
P. Keaton, the fictional Republican teenage son of former hippies who,
played by Michael J. Fox on the television series "Family Ties,"
comically captured the nation’s conservative shift. But over time, Mr.
Houston left the Republican Party because "I started to realize that the
party doesn’t represent the people I grew up with."

Now, as chairman of the Democratic Party in Oakland County, Michigan’s
second largest, Mr. Houston is finding out how difficult it can be to
persuade other white men here to support Democrats, even among the 20 or
so, mostly construction workers, who join him in READ MORE

Friday, March 14, 2014

Peter Breen is running in the Republican Primary next Tuesday
to replace Sandy Pihos as my Illinois Representative in the 48th
District. Breen is Vice President and Senior Counsel for the Thomas More
Society, which he claims, is a champion of First Amendment Rights. In a
post last month, "Breen last person I'd see about First Amendment
rights", I took issue with Breen's wrapping himself and his candidacy in
a phony mantle of First Amendment defender, pointing out Breen's Thomas
More Society simply promotes opposition to gay marriage, the "right" of
anti abortion fanatics to harass traumatized women entering abortion clinics,
and the "right" of these same fanatics to shove their religious beliefs
down our throats putting religious settings in the public square. I
concluded with my title that if I had a First Amendment issue, Breen
would be the last person I'd see for advice. This
month Breen raised the states in his phony First Amendment defender
issue with his latest campaign mailer. Above his movie star handsome
visage he has an even bigger photo of the Gipper himself, Ronald Reagan,
next to the enigmatic title "WWRRD?". That is explained underneath as
"What Would Ronald Reagan Do?" Then he imagines the Gipper would, like
Breen, jump into the "Demonize the IRS" camp we know so well from our
IRS hatemongering Congressman Peter Roskam. Breen tops even Roskam by
linking the IRS to the trampling (his term) of First Amendment rights of
anti abortion activists. Bunk. Breen makes this scurrilous charge
simply because he believes it will play well in a Primary where the most
bigoted and know-nothing Republicans are most energized to vote. If
Breen was really concerned about the sanctity of life, he wouldn't
invoke the Patron Saint of Tea Party Republicans, Ronald Reagan, who
began the decline of the Middle Class in 1981, with his tax cuts, union
busting, outsourcing frenzy, and his support for anti leftist forces
throughout Central America responsible for tens of thousands of needless
deaths. Breen's
mailer claims "In the Boy Scouts, we were always taught to leave
a place better than we found it". When it comes to providing good
governance in the 48th...Peter Breen should just leave.

Record numbers of Americans in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll
support gay marriage, say adoption by gay couples should be legal and
see gays and lesbians as good parents. Most oppose a right to refuse
service to gays, including on religious grounds. And, by a closer
margin, more also accept than reject gay marriage as a constitutional
right.

The results continue a dramatic transformation of public attitudes on
the issue, led by political, legislative and court-ordered developments
alike. Seventeen states now allow gay marriage, and federal courts in
four others – most recently Texas and Virginia – have rejected laws
banning it.

A QUESTION OF PRIORITIES

The middle class and small business owners suffer because our tax system stifles economic expansion. People struggle to find good jobs, with employment growth in Illinois lagging behind the national average as the country climbs out of recession.

Nearly every day seems to bring bad news about harmful cuts—to public school funding, police and public safety, community colleges and universities, health services and more, with additional cuts on the horizon.

Why is this happening? In part because Illinois politicians have had the wrong priorities-- continuing to pay for years of government mismanagement and waste, like expensive loopholes for rich corporations and corporate CEOs-- rather than protecting priorities like schools, public safety and health care.

It’s time for a new approach.

It’s time for a government with more accountability and less waste.

It’s time for A Better Illinois.

A FAIR APPROACH — THE RIGHT APPROACH

The tax system in Illinois is broken and needs to be fixed. Too often, rich people and big corporations avoid paying their fair share.

The middle class pays about twice the rate that the rich pay in Illinois taxes—while Main Street small business owners who create millions of Illinois jobs pay a higher tax rate than big corporations and CEOs that use loopholes to avoid paying their fair share.

In fact, under our current system, small business owners get hit twice; once, because of the READ MORE

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

If you don't have health insurance, here's something you need to know:

The median cost of a trip to the emergency room is $1,233. It could be as simple as a sprained ankle or a sudden illness that sends you there, but if you're not covered, it's going to set you back. In fact, the median ER visit costs more than the average American pays for rent each month.

I can think of so many other things I'd rather do with that kind of cash -- can't you?

When you get covered, not only will you get peace of mind from knowing that an emergency won't devastate your finances -- but preventive care like immunizations and regular checkups can come at no cost to you.

That sounds like a win-win.

March 31st will be here before you know it, and you don't want to be left behind.